If you’ve visited downtown Ventura recently you may have noticed the newly installed cigarette butt cans in areas with the worst cigarette butt litter problems. While smoking is not permitted downtown or in almost any other public space in the city, there is still a considerable amount of cigarette butt litter making its way into our streets, storm drains, waterways, and beaches. In fact, cigarette butts are the most commonly collected item during local beach cleanups.

In the first month that the five downtown cigarette butt cans were installed, all of the cans were being used frequently, and Surfrider estimated that 4,000 cigarette butts were collected from the new cans.

These efforts are part of a larger Hold On To Your Butt (HOTYB) campaign that Surfrider is leading, with support from the City of Ventura and other local groups. Downtown is the first area in the city to receive cigarette butt cans, with more cans set to be installed on City property in other areas soon.